Updated October 16, 2014 at 9:38 PM;Posted October 16, 2014 at 8:31 PM

Barack Obama, Sylvia Burwell, Thomas Frieden

President Barack Obama speaks to the media about the government's Ebola response, in the Oval Office of the White House Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, in Washington. From left are Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, the President, and Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Thursday night he's considering appointing a single person in his administration to oversee the Ebola crisis and rejected renewed Republican calls for a travel ban from Western African nations where the virus outbreak is centered.

And he expressed "our heartfelt concern" for the two Dallas nurses who were inflicted with the disease after treating a Liberian with Ebola.

"The most important thing, in addition to treating and monitoring anybody who even has a hint of potential exposure here in this country, the most important thing that I can do for keeping the American people safe is for us to be able to deal with Ebola at the source, where you got a huge outbreak in West Africa," Obama said after meeting into the evening with top aides and health officials at the White House.

"And the United States is obviously leading the way in terms of providing resources, equipment, and mobilizing the world community. So over the last several days I continued to call other world leaders to get them to up their pledges of equipment, of personnel, of logistical capabilities to make sure that we're getting our workers on the ground there. We've seen some progress in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but we haven't seen enough."

The president said he doesn't have "a philosophical objection necessarily to a travel ban if that is the thing that is going to keep the American people safe." But he said that in all the discussions he's had with experts, including infectious disease specialists, all he heard was that such a move would be counterproductive.

"If we institute a travel ban instead of the protocols that we've put in place now, history shows that there is a likelihood of increased avoidance," Obama said.

"People do not readily disclose their information. They may engage in something called broken travel, essentially breaking up their trip so that they can hide the fact that they have been to one of these countries where there is a disease in place. And as a result, we may end up getting less information about who has the disease. They're less likely to get treated properly, screened properly, quarantined properly."

Obama has been urged by some Republicans to appoint someone to oversee the administration's response to Ebola and he says he is giving it serious consideration.

He said the team at the Centers for Disease Control, his national security team and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services are doing an "outstanding job," but "they also are responsible for a whole bunch of other stuff," mentioning the continuing threat from Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria, and the upcoming flu season.

"We know that every year tens of thousands of people potentially die of the flu, and a hundred-thousand or more may be actually going to the emergency room and hospitalized because of the flu," said Obama, urging Americans to get flu shots.

At a contentious House hearing on Ebola Thursday, some Republicans again called on the administration to institute a ban on travel from non-U.S. residents coming from the three Western African nations with the largest number of Ebola cases.

"You ought to look at least immediately suspending visas for non-U.S. nationals," said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson during the hearing.

House Republicans, including Scalise, have previously criticized the president for appointing "czars" to oversee certain government programs, saying he had given people not subject to Senate confirmation too much power. But in the case of Ebola, several Republicans urged him to put one person in charge of overseeing the U.S. response.

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, before the president's remarks Thursday night, said the emphasis has to be on stopping the spread of Ebola from Western Africa.

"In the long term, the only way to fully eradicate Ebola is to stop it at its source in West Africa," said Boustany, a physician. "I support our efforts to coordinate an international response in West Africa to educate and equip locals to defeat this outbreak. My office is currently looking into ways that we can take action to guarantee the safety of American families from this virus, and I will continue doing whatever it takes to support working solutions for the health and well-being of Louisiana and the United States."

Bruce Alpert is the Washington reporter for NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at balpert@nola.com